Vaccine Epidemic - The Book

Officially launching on February 9, 2011 but already shipping from amazon.com, Vaccine Epidemic is a whole new way of looking at the vaccine debate.  

I am proud to be a part of this effort.  Over twenty authors have contributed chapters on a wide array of topics, including law, ethics, media, human rights, medicine, epidemiology, history, philosophy, and personal stories of vaccine injury.  In addition to my role as contributing editor, I also authored a chapter on vaccine exemptions and forced child removal.

We  offer parents, medical professionals and others ways to critically examine the issues surrounding vaccination.  But let's be clear, "Vaccine Epidemic" is NOT anti-vaccine.  It is pro-vaccination choice.  It is in favor of informed consent concerning vaccination.   Parents (and others), regardless of what they ultimately decide is the right choice for themselves and their family, should have the opportunity to make their decision from a position of knowledge.  Their decision should not be based on fear, coercion, and lack of knowledge concerning their rights and the potential risks and benefits of vaccination. 

Vaccine Epidemic" rises above the name-calling and rhetoric and offers a studied and serious look at the issues concerning vaccination and why the book is not closed on the link between vaccines and a wide variety of diseases and disorders.  It is an eye-opening read, no matter where you stand on issues surrounding vaccination.

If you are in or will be traveling to NYC on February 18, join us that evening for our launch event at NYU School of Law.  The event will include panel discussions, Q&A and a book signing.  A number of authors will be in attendance,  The event is free and open to the public but requires pre-registration.  Click here for more information and to register.

Stayed tuned for more events, chances to win a copy of the book, and other news!

Preserved Lemons

While in Paris this winter, we ate a small Moroccan restaurant frequented by friends who live nearby.  Le Tagine was wonderful.  They accommodated H's dietary needs and served tasty Moroccan cuisine in a nicely decorated room (I especially loved the punched metal sconces and light fixtures).  I had a delicious tagine of lamb, olives and preserved lemon and the flavors just burst in my mouth.  This was my second run in with preserved lemons in a week.  A few days before I had prepared a version of Charlie Palmer's "Ten-Hour" veal pappardelle that I had eaten in November at Metrazur, the Palmer restaurant in Grand Central Station.  The recipe calls for preserved lemons, to which I did not have ready access in a small French town over the Christmas holiday, so I did without, using lemon zest (BTW, the family loved it so even without preserved lemon, it is worth making - warning that it is time intensive - best for a long weekend).

Quarter the lemon but do not slice through

Open up the lemons and salt the interior

A jar of preserved lemons on their way

These two dishes got me thinking about preserved lemons (and the lack thereof in my kitchen).  It turns out they are really easy to make.

One of my activities this weekend was preserved lemon preparation.  I used the recipe at SimplyRecipes, but substituted regular lemons for Meyer lemons.  While I like Meyer lemons a lot, I wanted really zingy preserved lemons.  All you need is a clean/sterilized canning jar, kosher salt, and a slew of lemons (I think 8 or so went into my jar, plus the juice of two others).  Use organic lemons if at all possible, after all, it is the skins that are the part you will be using and who wants to eat pesticides?

Take a look at the link above for the details, but basically a couple tablespoons of salt go in the bottom of your jar, followed by lemons with the ends trimmed and then quartered, but not sliced through, that have been salted.  You squish the lemons down into the jar to release juice (I suspect the salt helps this process because they release a lot of juice).  Fill the jar and top off with extra juice (if needed) and a couple more tablespoons of salt.  They stay at room temp a few days and then continue to cure for a few weeks in the fridge until they are ready to use.  I cannot wait.  I am going to try to replicate that lamb, olive and preserved lemon dish from le Tagine.

Vinegar for Winter Health

In catching up on some backlogged magazine reading while on vacation this winter, I happened upon a recipe in ReadyMade magazine for herbal vinegar that is supposed to help boost the immune system to stave off winter health woes.  The recipe for the tincture is credited to Trilby Sedlacek, a registered herbalist in Iowa and owner of Green Angels Herbs & Healing Arts.  The recipe is easy - raw apple cider vinegar (such as Bragg) and fresh herbs of your choice (recommended are: nasturtium, mint, garlic, sage and basil).  You simply fill a clean/sterilized canning jar (a Ball jar) with herbs, not overpacking, and then fill the jar with vinegar.  You seal and let it sit for about two weeks at room temperature, shaking gently once in awhile.  Then you strain out the herbs, label and date the jar and start enjoying.  Note:  the Wild*Crafty blog recommends letting ther herb/vinegar mix sit for six weeks before decanting. 

Fresh, organic sage (left) and basil (right)

Bragg ACV

The chopped herbs, loosely packed

I  started my tincture this afternoon.  I chose sage and basil and I would recommend organic herbs if you can find them.  While garlic has many healing properties, unfortunately, both H & I recently tested as sensitive to it.  So, for the time being, it is out of our diets.   This took only a few minutes to make and now I just have to patiently wait for the tincture to be ready.

The finished product - ACV & herbs

Once the tincture has "matured" for a few weeks, you can use a few spoonfuls in salad dressings, sauces, soups/stews.  Or, if you are like me and love vinegar, have a few spoonfuls straight up!  For hot food, it is recommended to add after cooking so as not to destroy the healthful benefits of the raw vinegar. The theory behind the tincture is that the vinegar helps to extract the minerals from the herbs.  Unlike the strictly culinary vinegars that you can buy in gourmet groceries, which use just a small amount of herbs for their flavor properties, this type of tincture is prepared with larger quantities of herbs for their healthful properties - that they taste great too is an additional benefit!

Green Means Go

I have been absent from blogging for too long.  Life in general and, especially, a book project, had left me pressed for time.  My apologies but when you hear more about the book, I hope you will think it was worth the blogging break.  Intrigued?  Click the link above and learn more now.

Today I had two great green food experiences.  One was cooking an old favorite - kale - a new way.  The second was my introduction to an entirely new food for me - sea beans.

First the kale.  Kale is  one of my favorite foods, sauteed, raw, in green drinks.  I just love it.  And Henry really likes it too, which is great because kale's nutritional profile is a strong one - it is a veggie superstar.  A few days ago, an email from Elana Amsterdam's blog dropped in my inbox with an enticing recipe for sea salt and vinegar kale chips. As an aside, if you are not familiar with Elana's blog, Elana's Pantry, or her cookbook, especially if you are gluten-free, they are definitely worth checking out.  The kale chips took only minutes to make and are delish!  You toss a small bit of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and sea salt with the kale in a bowl and bake in the oven (details are in the link).  I have to confess that I was eating pieces of it right out of the bowl (I told you that I love kale!)  I haven't been able to get H to try one, but hopefully soon.  And if he doesn't want them, more for me! The photo above are a few of my sea salt and vinegar kale chips.

These are sea beans, or salicornia:

Apparently they have been showing up in farmers' markets and gourmet shops the past few years and I have missed them... lost, sea bean-free years I shall never get back.  Very sad.  But now I know them and will definitely pick some up when I see them.  These are wonderfully crisp little gems that taste of the sea (read: salty) but also with a clean vegetable taste.  I just looked through a bunch of my vegetable and raw foods cookbooks and nary a mention of sea beans, so I may not be the only one missing out.  Gothamist pointed me to Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini as a source of information.  This out of print book looks really amazing - a combination of vegetable encyclopedia and recipe book - I might use of one of my amazon.com gift cards to get this.  Given there saltiness, I would think that those on a salt-restricted regimen might have to be careful with these.

I have been eating handfuls of them all afternoon since returning from the Whole Foods in Darien, CT with a bag full of them.  This is a stop we frequently make on our way home from visits to Darin Ingels, ND, who is helping both H and me with allergy/immune system issues.  Today we found not only the sea beans but also emu eggs (alongside the more familiar quail and duck eggs).  The emu eggs were huge and colored a deep blue-green - not unlike a really huge avocado.  And not inexpensive ($29+ each!).  I am not sure what one does with them - my googling suggests what you do with other eggs but that one is like a dozen+ chicken eggs.  Yikes! Nonetheless, they were lovely to look at, just not practical for our family.

Dancing With Max - a Book Review

I recently joined LibraryThing to try to organize my book collection and, along the way, signed up on the site to be an early reviewer.  This means that every month I receive an email linking me to many books that LibraryThing makes available to its members in exchange for a review.  You can request as many as you would like and if you are chosen to receive a book, it is sent to you and you have several weeks to read and review the book (more people request most books than copies are available so you don't get all you request).  In my second month on the list, I actually got a book.  As fate would have it, from the many I had ticked off as books I was interested in, I received an autism book:  Dancing With Max:  A Mother and Son Who Broke Free by Emily Colson (with prologue and epilogue by Charles Colson, her father), published by Zondervan. The following is largely based on my LibaryThing review but I wanted to share here too.

Dancing With Max is a wonderfully uplifting story of breaking free of what parents of children with autism are often told to expect from their children, but the book is much more.  The book is about both author Emily Colson and her son Max growing and changing, in sometimes unexpected ways.  It is about forming a truly deep parent-child bond despite the challenges of autism.  The book also is about how Emily's relationship with her own father evolved and healed, due in part to the family having to understand, accept and adapt to Max's challenges with autism.  Chuck Colson was special counsel to President Nixon, a workaholic, who did not always, by his own admission, spend enough time with his family.  He also was incarcerated on Watergate-related charges.  He became more religious and founded a non-profit to minister to those in prison.  Like her father, Emily is a woman of strong faith and she found unique and wonderful ways for Max to share in her faith. 

Emily's story demonstrates what so many fail to understand about "autism moms" - how a mother can continue to fight to improve her child's life - searching for new therapies, schools, treatments - but all the while accepting him and loving him for who he is at the moment. 

I suspect that while on the surface there are many differences between myself and Emily Colson, deep down there is much that we share. Her book is a moving tribute to her son and her family.  It is clear that, while he faces many challenges as he becomes a young adult with autism, Max also has a gift to share with the world and Emily is working is ways both small (in their everyday lives) and large (the book!) to share Max and his gift with others.  While the book is frank about tough moments - any parent with autism would see through a book that did not give a fair shake to those tough times -  it is ultimately affirming -- a story about moving forward, persevering, growing, loving and being loved.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Angela Fish, the lucky winner of "All I Can Handle:  I'm No Mother Teresa"!  Enjoy Angela. 

Giveaway and Book Review: Kim Stagliano's "All I Can Handle: I'm No Mother Teresa"

Reading Kim Stagliano's new book, "All I Can Handle: I'm No Mother Teresa" from Skyhorse Publishing is like sitting down with a cup of coffee (glass of wine?) and catching up with an old friend.  It is the perfect book to cozy up with on the sofa on a chilly day and read cover to cover (or maybe that's just because this is exactly what I did).  See the end of this post to see how you can win your own autographed copy of "All I Can Handle"!

Kim is the mother to three amazing daughters, each of whom is on the autism spectrum.   She is also the managing editor of AgeOfAutism, the online newspaper of the autism community, a HuffingtonPost contributor, and a blogger.

In her "Kimoir" (as she calls it), she shares her no-holds-barred story of raising her girls.  I sound like an overblown ad for a blockbuster movie when I say "I laughed, I cried - bring your family and friends, see (read) it again!" but that is exactly how I felt about this book. Kim's story is one of negotiating the ups and downs that life throws our way with faith, humor, and aplomb.  But, as the title says, she is no Mother Teresa.  Thank goodness!  Her story would not ring true if it was all roses and ponies.  Plus, this book would not be nearly so funny if she was a saint.  And it is laugh out loud funny!  If you cannot imagine an autism story written with humor - think again.  Without giving away too much, the image of Kim inadvertently stealing a fan from a local store after a bathroom flooding "Stagtastrophe" (her name works so well for wordplay like this!) is priceless (and hysterical!).

She shares moments of joy, such as her daughters' First Holy Communions, successful birthday parties, exciting career moves.  But she also shares challenging moments of anger, marital stress, financial difficulties, illnesses, a child lost in a vast Disney resort.  What she shares is real life.  As the parent of a child on the spectrum, her book is particularly meaningful to me but I truly believe that everyone can enjoy this book because there is so much more than autism here and the lessons of life, even when learned through the lens of autism, are applicable to so much more.

But back to autism... this book also serves as an important PSA to parents of children with autism.  It is incumbent upon us to be the best advocates we can for our children.  My heart broke and my anger swelled when Kim related her experience of a neurologist telling her that they just aren't that aggressive in treating children with autism.  I felt such anger reading this that I cannot imagine how the Staglianos felt at that moment.  This doctor was writing off a child - a child with so much potential - merely because of the label of "autism."  As so many parents know, and as so many doctors still so fail in ignorance to recognize, children with autism are sick - they have GI problems, they have seizures, they have immune system dysfunction, they have metabolic and mitochondrial disorders.  Thank you Kim for spreading that message.

So run, don't walk to your nearest bookstore or e-tailer and get a copy today.  Also, I am privileged to have an autographed copy to give away to one lucky blogreader.  Comment below, leaving your name and full email address, and I will pick a winner at random on November 15, 2010 and contact you by email.  Enter to win and feel free to share this post and spread the word.

Come meet Kim and hear her read from her book at the National Autism Association - NY Metro Chapter parent network exchange meeting this Wednesday, November 10, 2010, at the Rebecca School, 40 E. 30th St. in Manhattan (b/w Park and Madison Aves.) from 6pm-8:30pm.  Increase your chances of winning a copy of Kim's book by also visiting NAA-NY Metro's facebook page or blog!